This past week I conducted another Partner-Pipeline track for a firm. In one of the courses, we discussed an experience they could all relate to: no matter how hard they tried, too often their clients were dissatisfied with what they delivered.

So I posed this question: is it possible to deliver to your client exactly what they wanted, on time and on budget and the client still be dissatisfied? The question brought out a hearty recounting of war stories of unappreciative clients, all ending with participants expressing bewildered frustration.

We explored two situations where they (and you) are especially vulnerable to unappreciative, dissatisfied clients. The first is when you’re not paying attention and you become difficult to work with. Clients don’t like the fact that they don’t know how things are going. They don’t like it when you take forever to get back to them. They don’t like it when you won’t accept responsibility, even if there were other people and circumstances contributing to the misstep. Regardless, they are dissatisfied with you.

Another area where your clients are dissatisfied is when they make a request of you, they rely on your professional experience to ask the right questions to make sure their request is appropriate. It may not even occur to them that what they want isn’t what they need—that it won’t solve the problem as they have assessed it. So you give them what they asked for, failing first to determine what their request will solve—and they are dissatisfied with you.

This week, increase your clients’ satisfaction by communicating thoroughly and frequently to THEIR liking. And don’t accept a request without knowing what it is designed to solve. Your clients will appreciate you and you will enjoy serving them to their success.